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Reviews
City of Chance (1940)
Underwhelming short B-- 'noir' movie. Mothing much to see.
Underwhelming.
Very limited and static production - basically everything takes place in one set - almost a quasi-theatre piece. The only virtue is its short (56 mins). Mixture of very light 'noir' and some 'screwball' comedy. (The words 'screwball', 'zany' and 'swashbuckling' are personal turn-offs.)
The lead actress. Lynn Bari is very competent and veteran
C. Aubrey Smith try their best. *If you don't recognise the latter's name, your brain will click when you see his picture.
There is a rather long lead-in, even for such a short film, and that turned me off almost in itself. The plot, if it had been dealt with more 'noirishly' with less of the screwball element, might have worked better.
Overall, one to skirt round.
Decoy (1946)
Serviceable - could have been a minor classic but....
A decent little production. With a few tweaks in casting, plot development and direction could easily have become a minor classic. Some intrusive music in dialogue scenes. The detective (Sheldon Leonard) and Edward Norris (Vincent) were pretty consummately acted. Some people rave about Jean Gillie. She was fine, but certainly no Lauren Bacall. The most cringeworthy was the doctor's receptionist - Marjorie Woodworth. Not surprisingly her acting was even panned at the time and she 'retired' in 1947. I hesitate to even speculate about 'casting couch'. Worth watching and, if you give it a gap of 3-4 years, you'll probably find yourself watching it again.
The Gangster (1947)
Art cinematography - affected acting.
Described by NYTimes' Bosley Crowther as 'shoddy' and by Dennis Schwartz as 'unnecessarily stage-like and much too pretentious for the modest storyline', these sum the film up well.
I was alerted to this film as it was listed by Anthony D'Ambra as one of his 71 essential films noirs with 5 stars - I have to demur. It was not a waste of time watching it, but it will definitely not be on my list for a second viewing.
Rumour has it that Dalton Trumbo was involved in the screenplay and he carries the can for the affected style. Belitta (I am always sceptical of actors/actresses with single names) is rather stiff and wooden.
One which can be watched once - for the quite elaborate cinematography for a 'B' film, but that's about all.
Blacklight (2022)
Desultory overall - Taylor John Smith holds up fine
Firmly one for Neeson fans - 0f whom I am one. This is basically tosh, but fills an hour and a half pretty well, though I did do 20-minutes' ironing half way through it.
One critic -James Berardinelli - says this film is better than Cold Pursuit. Codswallop .
This is poor. Much of the acting from nearly all the actors (apart from Quinn, Neeson and Taylor Smith) is amateurish, one-dimensional and even annoying - especially in the case of the newspaper editor who gets bumped off.
The only one who comes out when his head held high and who injects some vim and substance into his role is Taylor John Smith.
Cairo (1963)
A fairly decent remake of The Aspjalt Jungle
A fairly decent remake of The Asphalt Jungle - on its own terms.
The director Rilla stuck reasonably closely to John Huston's film script.
I would have given this 6, but the presence of George Sanders and Walter Rilla add a touch of much needed class.
Richard Johnson 'browning up' as an Arab is somewhat outré, though Johnson is slightly more convincing than Sterling Hayden in the original. The scene where Sanders is entranced by a belly dancing lady is also more believable than Sam Jaffe being entranced by a young woman jiving to juke box tunes in a small diner.
Worth watching as a curio and to compare it scene by scene to The Asphalt Jungle.
Guilt (2020)
Pedestrian, some wooden acting, plot non-sequiturs
Low-budget, some wooden acting and dialogue (particularly the receptionist).
There is a decent kernel of a story which, with more polished directing, casting and dialogue could have been an above average Michael Winnerish sort of film.
Best actor: Tom Wilson as Mitchell - the counsellor's former patient who comes clean about making stories up about his 'abuser'.
Scream and Scream Again (1970)
Confused Tosh
Confused tosh.
Peter Cushing is on screen for ca. 4 or 5 mins and is killed off.
Peter Sallis is despatched very early on.
Christopher Lee and Vincent Price have more substantive roles.
Viaggio in Italia (1954)
Insipid; one to miss unless you're a cinema history buff
I won't go on like some of the overly laudatory reviews here.
James Berardinelli in Reel Reviews considers it an important film in the history of cinema; however, he is very realistic in his assessment of its merits as a stand-alone film and especially the performances of the two central actors, Sanders and Bergman.
I largely came to this film in my desire to explore as fully as possible the George Sanders canon. Sad to say, I do wish I had given it a miss.
Breakout (2013)
Passable - not a complete turkey.
Passable B- film - not a complete turkey. Tolerable for a Covid lockdown evening.
Abrupt and unsatisfactory ending.
Not something Purcell or Fraser will look back on with too much professional pride.
Way of the Wicked (2014)
Passable B- horror.
Passable for Covid lockdown viewing - only 90 minutes. Not a complete turkey.
Credit to
The combination of Christian Slater, Vinnie Jones and the Antichrist
is a little weird. Goodness knows what Slater's agent was thinking.
The twist in the ending is somewhat contrived and a letdown.
Credit to Jake Croker for holding his own in the film - in fact he almost ends up 'carrying' it. Some credit too to Aren Buchholz.
Outcast of the Islands (1951)
For curiosity value only - and for fans of Trevor Howard.
I have not read the original Conrad novel, but I cannot imagine he would have been wholly satisfied with Carol Reed's translation of this to the screen.
However, this is worth seeing once for curiosity value. I ventured upon it whilst searching for Trevor Howard films, but this film belongs to Ralph Richardson, especially during the climax in the last ten minutes or so. Robert Morley is sterling, but Wendy Hiller is unfathomable most of the time.
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times praised the acting, but at the end concluded:
"The course of the downfall is clear and the general significance of it is neither arresting nor profound. If any Conradian sagacity is supposed to be lodged within the film, it entirely escaped this reviewer. It is a great show of sheer dry-rot, that's all."
Slightly harsh,
Freedom Radio (1941)
Decent, passable WWII yarn
I would only confirm 'Igenlode Wordsmith's' review from 2006.
I also read the Radio Times review, but this time by David Parkinson (as printed in July 2020).
Parkinson comments, "the rest of the cast are simply dreadful as they spout platitudes in clipped stage accents that are totally unsuited to their middle European characters. Clive Brook and Derek Farr are embarrassingly earnest as the heads of a pirate radio station, but even worse is Diana Wynyard's ludicrously naive collaborator."
This is an overly ungenerous review, to put it mildly.
It has quite a taut plot and, despite the clipped accents, the cast put in a more than competent performance. At 90 mins, you will not regret devoting some time to viewing it.
Stolen Holiday (1937)
Pleasant enough and appropriate length.
Pleasant little film and not too demanding.
Claude Rains, Kay Francis and Alison Skipworth are very good, as as some of the ensemble cast.
The weak link, as pointed out by reviewer 'Oriel', is Ian Hunter (37 but looking older) as the object of Kay Francis' romantic entanglement. Rather insipid and unconvincing. Alexander D'Arcy (who plays Leon) would have been more appealing.
Don't expect too much. The story hums along fairly well, but the interludes with Kay Francis and Ian Hunter drag.
Invisible Stripes (1939)
Solid, but stodgy in many parts
The other reviewers have basically said it all.
Raft is stodgy and wooden. Look at the walk. The arguments with his son (a very young William Holden) show his deficiencies. Holden reacts in a nuanced way - Raft stiffly emotes.
Bogart is watchable as ever, but has a secondary role here.
Flora Robson shows her versatility and nuanced dexterity as the mother.
The standout is Holden. Didn't recognize him. Scarcely believable that 11 years later he was in Sunset Boulevard. In those 11 years you can see the effects hard drinking can have.
This film passed 90 minutes in August in the scorching heat of the Kurdish region of Iraq. Not a film to watch twice, but no regrets letting the sometimes plodding plot while away a Thursday afternoon.